I am a life long resident of SC. I will NOT be voting for either man. Lindsey Graham definitely needs to be voted out! But a Project 2025 author like Dans doesn’t deserve to be a senator either! Both of them are awful! I’m supporting Dr. Annie Andrews for senator. She will be in the Democratic primary.
All of this is so depressing. The worst people are in high positions and they are doing so much damage from RFK, Linda McMahon, Russell Vought, Kristi Noem, Tom Holman to Steven Miller and the list goes on. They are heartless people in my opinion and are ruining our country. What they are doing to immigrants keeps me up at night. It is unacceptable. And where is Congress? The GOP members are complicit. With this administration’s attack on voting rights they think they will be safe in the midterms because they are doing everything they can to make it difficult for minorities, disabled people, military families, seniors and women to vote and gerrymandering on top of that. I’m calling, organizing and finding ways to make some difference but it is hard to stay positive, however you are an inspiration and a light. Thank you for all you do!
It is telling that of the 11 examples of religious paraphernalia/holiday mentioned in the article, 9 are Christian, two Jewish, none Muslim or other religions.
Deliciously malicious compliance would be listening to the athan (call to prayer) at max volume every single day. It's part of personal prayer so it doesn't even fall under the evangelism sector. 😇
As a Christian (but NOT nationalist), I absolutely support separation of church and state. This new directive is furthering division in our country and smacks of the policies of the Middle Ages. We are not a theocracy. Those supporting this are in a fever dream of power disguised as evangelism. It’s sickening to me.
On a personal note, as someone with morals: the idea that a former FBI agent would encourage people to kill local PD? Beyond disgusting. Terrifying. This person is a terrorist.
Up is down and right is left! The goal is to leave us dazed and confused, and I think it might be working! That, along with the constant news about DJT and his minions is smothering the country!
Pretty sure Jesus didn't say, "I was going on a hike and you prayed for me." Pretty sure he actually said, "I was hungry and you didn't feed me. I was naked and you didn't give me clothes. I was in prison and you didn't visit me. Whatever you neglected to do for the least of these, you neglected to do for me." Meanwhile they're taking away food and medical care from children, criminalizing homelessness, and throwing people into horrible, inhumane prisons.
**Please know I think praying is fine and good. However, overriding people's personal beliefs and boundaries in order to pray over them? Not okay. Saying, "Oh, I'll pray for you" while neglecting people's physical needs and dignity? Also absolutely not okay. Pretty sure there are also verses about that.
Why are the list of permissible activities so weirdly specific? The VA and Park Rangers can do this... A receptionist can do that ... The more government rhetoric I see from this administration, I'm convinced they are either A) laughing at the ridiculously elementary level of writing while they compose or B) need to take some 1101 Comp classes again.
I had the same thought of when has anyone ever been stopped from having a Bible with them to read for themselves at their workplace? Plenty of people wear a cross necklace to their workplace. But when you think you're being persecuted when you're not or that everyone should have the same belief as you when they don't, it tracks.
As a Christian school teacher in a public school, I always worried where the line was when it came to talking about my faith with children. I also didn't always feel comfortable teaching about or decorating for holidays based on how much it could be considered evangelism. However, if you allow Christians to evangelize in the workplace you cannot prevent other religions or other sects of Christianity from doing the same. I don't feel that my comfortability is so important that you should just change the whole rule. Seems to me that your religious beliefs should be personal. You shouldn't feel uncomfortable sharing them with adults that you are close to, at lunch, after work but to take time away from the job you are supposed to be doing to do "evangelism" (most people don't really understand what that means and think that it is just telling everyone what they believe and how everyone else is wrong) is not a good thing.
I don’t mind at all people being able to openly chat about their religion at work - in fact, I’ve had some good convos with employees about religion. (Note that I’m not a federal worker.) So on the one hand, I appreciate clarification that chatting about religion in the break room is completely acceptable. What I don’t like is this idea of coworkers gathering to pray in a conference room, or doctors praying over the bed of their patients. I feel like that crosses a line from personal faith practice into unprofessionalism. How long before we get a story of a doctor who neglects accepted medical practices in favor of supplicating God? How long before coworkers feel pressured to join religious practice in order to be involved in important work discussions? There are too many lines being blurred here.
Chatting about religion in the break room has always been legal. It's also legal for coworkers to pray in a conference room as long as they are kicking out others who need that conference room too. What is not legal is trying to convince people your way to heaven is the only way or forcing people to accept one religion and abandon their own beliefs. It's a slippery slope, the opposite extreme is just as bad. People are disciplined for just speaking their mind when it doesn't agree with others. People need to be educated and cognizant that not everyone thinks and believes like they do and that is ok.
I felt the same when I worked in schools. But most of the schools I worked in were so diverse and for me that meant I respected every student's beliefs even if they were not my own. Honestly I enjoyed learning about the religious practices of students IF that was something they chose to share with me. I was also a librarian so I also wanted to make sure we had books that every student had a chance to see themselves in a book.
Oh, don't get me wrong, I too loved learning about all the religions in the world from the folks who live them. I do respect everyone's beliefs. I'm so glad that as a librarian you made the books available for all children. I studied all religions in college. I had just wished there were clearer lines of what was ok when I worked in the school system. It seemed that they were arbitrary, and I felt nervous about it always.
Feel exactly the same about being nervous about what might be perceived as the incorrect way to address religion. I always shied away from bringing it up myself as a topic, but if kids asked I'm like well let's see what information we can find for you. It was hard to navigate as a young teacher who grew up in a small town and everyone was mostly the same. So even though that first job that was way outside of what I grew up was hard, it was the best learning experience.
So the allowing of expressions of faith in federal workplaces. I have a couple of thoughts.
1. It's not like a federal employee couldn't keep a Bible at their desk or wear a hijab or a kippa, right? You just shouldn't force your beliefs on other people. Am I wrong? So, it's not like people couldn't be authentically religious in the first place.
2. If I were a federal employee and I practiced a religion that wasn't Judaism or Christianity (or practiced no religion), could I then express my faith (or lack of it)? Could I have a shrine to Vishnu at my desk? Could I proselytize while on duty, urging them to believe that there is no god? If I were a park ranger could I openly pray to Satan over my tour group?
As someone who was raised in the evangelical faith -- I can tell you that evangelical Christians believe with their whole chests that they are the most persecuted group in America. So even though they have always been able to be authentically religious, that fact is not part of their current world view. And the reason why Trump was elected was, in large part, due to evangelical voters. So things like this just pander to them.
This has always been so fascinating and puzzling to me, considering there has never been any major political or even cultural movement to make it illegal for people to be Christian in the US.
I guess maybe what they mean by the “war against Christians” is that other people in this country/world are allowed to…not be Christian?
It feels like we're living in the upside down where criminals are uplifted and given power and influence, where you can no longer expect to work in an environment free from others' religious beliefs being pushed on you, where good people are being rounded up without due process while other very bad people receive pardons and positions in the highest levels of government. The corruption is on full display.
If anyone in the comments is still a Trump supporter, I say this with love and empathy: you are on the wrong side of history. This is not about left vs. right. We are so far past that. I've said it before and I will keep saying it -- history WILL NOT look kindly on those who supported and enabled this administration.
I hope we make it to the midterms with enough of our democratic rights preserved to make the changes needed to reverse course. The idea of someone like Dans being elected over any incumbent Senator is disturbing. I’ve never agreed with Lindsey Graham’s policy, but the idea what’s worse. I think if I lived in SC and had the opportunity to vote in the R primary, I’d be considering who would be more easily beaten in the general election and vote for him.
No surprise that the new guidance on federal employees’ expression of faith is not at all inclusive. Every example given is related to a Christian or Jewish faith. What will happen when an employee begins expressing their Islamic faith in the workplace? Or, one who is a tribal member expresses their belief that opposes colonization? I do not think this guidance provides more freedom of expression. I think it gives greater tolerance to oppression.
But how are we empowered? Sad, scared, and disgusted, yes. And I want to know what's going on; I want the facts to keep being told; and I hope the courts, contacting Congress, protests, podcasts, and posts like this one will hold the country together and maintain a democracy. However, the DJT agenda keeps steamrolling forward unabated, or so it seems.
We’re not empowered in the slightest. By the time enough Trump-voter’s opinions of the maga message sour, this admin will have changed the rules and rigged the playing field to protect themselves from getting voted out. It’s going to be very difficult, if not impossible, to change this government via the democratic processes we thought were legally protected, because a maga SCOTUS & Congress can’t be trusted to enforce those laws anymore. And when Trump thanks tech bro Musk for “knowing those vote counting computers better than anyone else” who even knows if the voting process hasn’t already been hacked? Countries with despots have sham elections and maga’s been studying how to set up that kind of system for years now. How have other countries kicked out despots? Many can’t (Russia, Iran, etc) and some have - but not through voting. The empowerment may have to come in the form of actions the public isn’t near ready to engage in yet. Dark times ahead, I fear.
Nancy and Elizabeth, Everything you say is true. But knowing the truth is empowering.
Also, we have stopped some (not enough) bad things and reversed (also not enough) others. One of the most recent is the federal government withholding $7B of state school funding due 7/1 that we forced them to pay by our being loud and in their faces.
The arc does not bend itself. It takes great and sustained effort. And it is up to us.
It's telling, though not surprising, that the religion given permission to express itself in public is Christianity. Judaism gets a very tiny mention. This is a gateway to the unofficial institutionalization of Christianity in the US. Technically according to this memo, people of all religions have the right to bring their faith to work now, but if we think for even a moment that the Christian officials in charge will not find ways to penalize and marginalize those adherents, we're kidding ourselves. Like everything else with this administration, this is freedom for some but never all.
Not sure if you've seen the new season of Shiny Happy People, but the last episode covers this in chilling detail. There is a group of Christian Nationalists who have been working hard for decades to enact a theocracy in this country. Some of those people are incredibly powerful, incredibly wealthy, and incredibly influential. Some of those people hold government positions of power right now.
If Maxwell gets immunity she will lie her ass off about Trump and Epstein. A better idea. Keep her in jail and have the hundreds of girls she recruited, trafficked and abused testify instead. The Maxwell family has always been shady (her newspaper owner father stole from the employees pension fund and then ‘fell off’ his yacht (called The Lady Ghislaine, pause for irony) She’s the less murder y version of Rose West (If you don’t know the story google Rose and Fred West)
I am a life long resident of SC. I will NOT be voting for either man. Lindsey Graham definitely needs to be voted out! But a Project 2025 author like Dans doesn’t deserve to be a senator either! Both of them are awful! I’m supporting Dr. Annie Andrews for senator. She will be in the Democratic primary.
I second this-Go Dr Annie!
Hi Rachel, Wouldn’t it be nice if Sharon interviewed Dr. Annie?
SAME!
Hi Evelyn! Hopefully we could convince Sharon to interview Dr. Annie?
Came here to write the same thing! Dr. Annie is the way to go!
Hi Lilly! Dr. Annie is definitely the way to go! It sure would be nice if Sharon would interview her.
Yes! Dr. Annie!!! In Charleston!!
Hi Karon! I live in the Lowcountry, too. Nice to know there is another Governerd here. 😊
As a Texan with a 2026 Senate primary choice between Ken Paxton and John Cornyn, I approve thos message. 😁
I feel your pain, Carey. Texas and SC are both absolutely deep red and both need change!
All of this is so depressing. The worst people are in high positions and they are doing so much damage from RFK, Linda McMahon, Russell Vought, Kristi Noem, Tom Holman to Steven Miller and the list goes on. They are heartless people in my opinion and are ruining our country. What they are doing to immigrants keeps me up at night. It is unacceptable. And where is Congress? The GOP members are complicit. With this administration’s attack on voting rights they think they will be safe in the midterms because they are doing everything they can to make it difficult for minorities, disabled people, military families, seniors and women to vote and gerrymandering on top of that. I’m calling, organizing and finding ways to make some difference but it is hard to stay positive, however you are an inspiration and a light. Thank you for all you do!
Becky, thank you for your resistance. You are also an inspiration and a light.
It is telling that of the 11 examples of religious paraphernalia/holiday mentioned in the article, 9 are Christian, two Jewish, none Muslim or other religions.
Deliciously malicious compliance would be listening to the athan (call to prayer) at max volume every single day. It's part of personal prayer so it doesn't even fall under the evangelism sector. 😇
Agreed. It could not be clearer -- they are really only talking about one religion when they push this agenda.
It’s time for the Pastafarians to enter the chat.
As a Christian (but NOT nationalist), I absolutely support separation of church and state. This new directive is furthering division in our country and smacks of the policies of the Middle Ages. We are not a theocracy. Those supporting this are in a fever dream of power disguised as evangelism. It’s sickening to me.
Every Christian should. Religion 🤝 government should terrify everybody.
On a personal note, as someone with morals: the idea that a former FBI agent would encourage people to kill local PD? Beyond disgusting. Terrifying. This person is a terrorist.
But dear leader said it was a day of Peace and love...
Apparently peace is now violence and love is now hate.
Up is down and right is left! The goal is to leave us dazed and confused, and I think it might be working! That, along with the constant news about DJT and his minions is smothering the country!
If we can’t agree that people should be held accountable for:
- wanting/encouraging others/trying to kill police officers
- sexually assaulting and trafficking children
What are we even doing here?
Pretty sure Jesus didn't say, "I was going on a hike and you prayed for me." Pretty sure he actually said, "I was hungry and you didn't feed me. I was naked and you didn't give me clothes. I was in prison and you didn't visit me. Whatever you neglected to do for the least of these, you neglected to do for me." Meanwhile they're taking away food and medical care from children, criminalizing homelessness, and throwing people into horrible, inhumane prisons.
**Please know I think praying is fine and good. However, overriding people's personal beliefs and boundaries in order to pray over them? Not okay. Saying, "Oh, I'll pray for you" while neglecting people's physical needs and dignity? Also absolutely not okay. Pretty sure there are also verses about that.
***And by pretty sure I mean 10000% sure.
Why are the list of permissible activities so weirdly specific? The VA and Park Rangers can do this... A receptionist can do that ... The more government rhetoric I see from this administration, I'm convinced they are either A) laughing at the ridiculously elementary level of writing while they compose or B) need to take some 1101 Comp classes again.
That was exactly my thought! It seems so poorly written in general that I would question its legitimacy at all if I were reading it as an employee.
I had the same thought of when has anyone ever been stopped from having a Bible with them to read for themselves at their workplace? Plenty of people wear a cross necklace to their workplace. But when you think you're being persecuted when you're not or that everyone should have the same belief as you when they don't, it tracks.
Apparently they want to get us accustomed to their micromanagement of every aspect of life.
And this from the party of less government!
Exactly.
Is it AI?
As a Christian school teacher in a public school, I always worried where the line was when it came to talking about my faith with children. I also didn't always feel comfortable teaching about or decorating for holidays based on how much it could be considered evangelism. However, if you allow Christians to evangelize in the workplace you cannot prevent other religions or other sects of Christianity from doing the same. I don't feel that my comfortability is so important that you should just change the whole rule. Seems to me that your religious beliefs should be personal. You shouldn't feel uncomfortable sharing them with adults that you are close to, at lunch, after work but to take time away from the job you are supposed to be doing to do "evangelism" (most people don't really understand what that means and think that it is just telling everyone what they believe and how everyone else is wrong) is not a good thing.
I don’t mind at all people being able to openly chat about their religion at work - in fact, I’ve had some good convos with employees about religion. (Note that I’m not a federal worker.) So on the one hand, I appreciate clarification that chatting about religion in the break room is completely acceptable. What I don’t like is this idea of coworkers gathering to pray in a conference room, or doctors praying over the bed of their patients. I feel like that crosses a line from personal faith practice into unprofessionalism. How long before we get a story of a doctor who neglects accepted medical practices in favor of supplicating God? How long before coworkers feel pressured to join religious practice in order to be involved in important work discussions? There are too many lines being blurred here.
Chatting about religion in the break room has always been legal. It's also legal for coworkers to pray in a conference room as long as they are kicking out others who need that conference room too. What is not legal is trying to convince people your way to heaven is the only way or forcing people to accept one religion and abandon their own beliefs. It's a slippery slope, the opposite extreme is just as bad. People are disciplined for just speaking their mind when it doesn't agree with others. People need to be educated and cognizant that not everyone thinks and believes like they do and that is ok.
I felt the same when I worked in schools. But most of the schools I worked in were so diverse and for me that meant I respected every student's beliefs even if they were not my own. Honestly I enjoyed learning about the religious practices of students IF that was something they chose to share with me. I was also a librarian so I also wanted to make sure we had books that every student had a chance to see themselves in a book.
Oh, don't get me wrong, I too loved learning about all the religions in the world from the folks who live them. I do respect everyone's beliefs. I'm so glad that as a librarian you made the books available for all children. I studied all religions in college. I had just wished there were clearer lines of what was ok when I worked in the school system. It seemed that they were arbitrary, and I felt nervous about it always.
Feel exactly the same about being nervous about what might be perceived as the incorrect way to address religion. I always shied away from bringing it up myself as a topic, but if kids asked I'm like well let's see what information we can find for you. It was hard to navigate as a young teacher who grew up in a small town and everyone was mostly the same. So even though that first job that was way outside of what I grew up was hard, it was the best learning experience.
So the allowing of expressions of faith in federal workplaces. I have a couple of thoughts.
1. It's not like a federal employee couldn't keep a Bible at their desk or wear a hijab or a kippa, right? You just shouldn't force your beliefs on other people. Am I wrong? So, it's not like people couldn't be authentically religious in the first place.
2. If I were a federal employee and I practiced a religion that wasn't Judaism or Christianity (or practiced no religion), could I then express my faith (or lack of it)? Could I have a shrine to Vishnu at my desk? Could I proselytize while on duty, urging them to believe that there is no god? If I were a park ranger could I openly pray to Satan over my tour group?
As someone who was raised in the evangelical faith -- I can tell you that evangelical Christians believe with their whole chests that they are the most persecuted group in America. So even though they have always been able to be authentically religious, that fact is not part of their current world view. And the reason why Trump was elected was, in large part, due to evangelical voters. So things like this just pander to them.
This has always been so fascinating and puzzling to me, considering there has never been any major political or even cultural movement to make it illegal for people to be Christian in the US.
I guess maybe what they mean by the “war against Christians” is that other people in this country/world are allowed to…not be Christian?
I will be looking at the Democrats. Lindsey Graham needs to go but Dans doesn’t belong here.
It feels like we're living in the upside down where criminals are uplifted and given power and influence, where you can no longer expect to work in an environment free from others' religious beliefs being pushed on you, where good people are being rounded up without due process while other very bad people receive pardons and positions in the highest levels of government. The corruption is on full display.
If anyone in the comments is still a Trump supporter, I say this with love and empathy: you are on the wrong side of history. This is not about left vs. right. We are so far past that. I've said it before and I will keep saying it -- history WILL NOT look kindly on those who supported and enabled this administration.
I hope we make it to the midterms with enough of our democratic rights preserved to make the changes needed to reverse course. The idea of someone like Dans being elected over any incumbent Senator is disturbing. I’ve never agreed with Lindsey Graham’s policy, but the idea what’s worse. I think if I lived in SC and had the opportunity to vote in the R primary, I’d be considering who would be more easily beaten in the general election and vote for him.
No surprise that the new guidance on federal employees’ expression of faith is not at all inclusive. Every example given is related to a Christian or Jewish faith. What will happen when an employee begins expressing their Islamic faith in the workplace? Or, one who is a tribal member expresses their belief that opposes colonization? I do not think this guidance provides more freedom of expression. I think it gives greater tolerance to oppression.
Lindsay is definitely the "devil you know" in this scenario.
Sigh…another Preamble leaving me feeling sad, disgusted, and scared. :(
Yes, Sarah, but also informed and empowered.
But how are we empowered? Sad, scared, and disgusted, yes. And I want to know what's going on; I want the facts to keep being told; and I hope the courts, contacting Congress, protests, podcasts, and posts like this one will hold the country together and maintain a democracy. However, the DJT agenda keeps steamrolling forward unabated, or so it seems.
We’re not empowered in the slightest. By the time enough Trump-voter’s opinions of the maga message sour, this admin will have changed the rules and rigged the playing field to protect themselves from getting voted out. It’s going to be very difficult, if not impossible, to change this government via the democratic processes we thought were legally protected, because a maga SCOTUS & Congress can’t be trusted to enforce those laws anymore. And when Trump thanks tech bro Musk for “knowing those vote counting computers better than anyone else” who even knows if the voting process hasn’t already been hacked? Countries with despots have sham elections and maga’s been studying how to set up that kind of system for years now. How have other countries kicked out despots? Many can’t (Russia, Iran, etc) and some have - but not through voting. The empowerment may have to come in the form of actions the public isn’t near ready to engage in yet. Dark times ahead, I fear.
Nancy and Elizabeth, Everything you say is true. But knowing the truth is empowering.
Also, we have stopped some (not enough) bad things and reversed (also not enough) others. One of the most recent is the federal government withholding $7B of state school funding due 7/1 that we forced them to pay by our being loud and in their faces.
The arc does not bend itself. It takes great and sustained effort. And it is up to us.
I do hope our small finger can continue to hold the dam against the surge.
(The original fable uses a different word for dam, but writing that sentence seemed, umm, no 🫢)
Thank you for choosing hope, friend.
It's telling, though not surprising, that the religion given permission to express itself in public is Christianity. Judaism gets a very tiny mention. This is a gateway to the unofficial institutionalization of Christianity in the US. Technically according to this memo, people of all religions have the right to bring their faith to work now, but if we think for even a moment that the Christian officials in charge will not find ways to penalize and marginalize those adherents, we're kidding ourselves. Like everything else with this administration, this is freedom for some but never all.
Not sure if you've seen the new season of Shiny Happy People, but the last episode covers this in chilling detail. There is a group of Christian Nationalists who have been working hard for decades to enact a theocracy in this country. Some of those people are incredibly powerful, incredibly wealthy, and incredibly influential. Some of those people hold government positions of power right now.
If Maxwell gets immunity she will lie her ass off about Trump and Epstein. A better idea. Keep her in jail and have the hundreds of girls she recruited, trafficked and abused testify instead. The Maxwell family has always been shady (her newspaper owner father stole from the employees pension fund and then ‘fell off’ his yacht (called The Lady Ghislaine, pause for irony) She’s the less murder y version of Rose West (If you don’t know the story google Rose and Fred West)